Title

Cell Phones Effect on Reaction Time

Problem Scenario

The reason behind testing to see if cell phones effect a persons reaction time is because so many people are saying how texting and talking on the phone is worse than driving drunk. With this experiment I will put an end to the question and finally have proof if cell phones are actually dangerous to you and the people around you while in a car.

Broad Question

What are the effect on cell phones on your reaction time while playing video games?

Specific Question

When students are asked to play a video game while texting or calling what are the effects on their reaction time while playing that video games?

Hypothesis

When driving without a cell phone students will have the fastest reaction time because there will be no distractions, while talking on the phone they will have a slower reaction time because they will be focusing on their conversation as well as driving. Texting and driving students will have the slowest reaction time because they will have to look somewhere else as well as the road.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

texting, talking while driving

Dependent Variable:

The amount of crashes and deaths

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

The course the player drives on, the text being sent while driving, the conversation on the phone while driving.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

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General Plan

Potential Problems And Solutions

A problem could be if someone has played the game before or ran the course they will be driving on.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

I have no safety or environmental concerns.

Experimental Design

Controlled, manipulated experiment

What is your experimental unit?

I measured the amount of crashes and deaths someone has while driving and participating in different distractions.

Number Of Trials:

I repeated the experiment 6 different times.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

I had three different subjects in each trial, driving without distractions, driving while talking on the phone, and texting while driving.

Number of Observations:

They did the course once without a phone and I counted the number of crashes, another while talking on the phone and the last time while driving and texting.

When data will be collected

March 16, 2013.

Where will data be collected?:

Data was collected in my grandparents house in their living room and only the data collector was allowed in the room with the test subject.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost $
Wii steering wheel	1	Mr. Groves	0
Wii	1	Grandparents	0
Wii Mario Game	1	Mr. Groves	0
Students	6	School	0

Detailed Procedure

I will have ten different people sit in front of a television. Each will have a steering wheel and a cell phone. As soon as the they are ten seconds into the course they will receive first a phone call and have to pick up and have a designated conversation. Every time they swerve or drift off the course I take note. Every time the crash into something that pops up we will test the amount of time it took for them to stop from the object popping up to coming to a complete stop. The second time there will be no distractions, but the third time ten seconds into the course the driver will receive a text message and throughout the whole course they will have a designated conversation. Then repeat the process with the next ten students.

Photo List

Time Line

Feb 5: Collect materials
Feb 8: Collect data by doing experiment

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Data Table

Without Phone
Time (Min)	of Crashes	of Deaths
3.41	4	0
3.45	20	0
3.46	22	1
3.32	12	6
3.39	14	0
3.31	15	1
3.35	18	1

With Phone Call
Time (Min)	of Crashes	of Deaths
3.55	6	0
3.44	19	2
3.42	22	0
3.5	23	7
3.47	7	0
3.4	18	0

With Texting
Time (Min)	of Crashes	of Deaths
4.17	3	2
5.26	25	4
7.07	58	5
4.58	32	6
5.1	5	2
7	19	7
7.16	36	8

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

Graphs

Photos

Results

My results show that in talking on the phone while driving does effect peoples reaction time and it also showed that texting and driving had a drastic effect on people driving everyone had at least one third more crashes and/or deaths.

Conclusion

My hypothesis does support my findings. The data shows that as the level of distraction increases so does the number of crashes and deaths. Driving and preforming another task can increase chances of crashes by at least 15% or more. Ultimately it was shown that texting had a greater number of crashes that both talking on the phone and driving and simply driving. The best idea would be to wait until out of the car or pull off the road if you need to use your phone.

Discussion

Benefit to Community and/or Science

The benefit to the community is that my project just supports even more the importance of not text, or talking on the phone while driving.

Background Research

In 2011, 3,331 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver, compared to 3,267 in 2010. An additional, 387,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver, compared to 416,000 injured in 2010. A distraction is anything that takes the drivers attention away from the road which could be any number of things such as texting, using a cell phone or smartphone, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, grooming, reading, including maps, using a navigation system, watching a video, adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player. Yet, because text messaging requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver, it is by far the most alarming distraction. And 18% of injury crashes in 2010 were reported as distraction-affected crashes.

Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted. Drivers who use hand-held devices are 4 times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. Headset cell phone use is not substantially safer than hand-held use. Sending or receiving a text takes a driver's eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent-at 55 mph-of driving the length of an entire football field, blind. Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%.

Noise and distractions are constant in our lives these days, ranging from jangling cellphones to babies crying. Annoying, for sure. But they can also be much more. Even a distraction that lasts only two seconds can double the number of errors made while performing a series of tasks that must be done in a precise sequence, like preparing an aircraft for flight or performing surgery, according to new research from Michigan State University and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. If the noise lasts four seconds, the number of errors triples. The best way to end distracted driving is to educate all Americans about the danger it poses.

References

http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/dangers-distraction-cellphone-ringtone-confuse-person-performing-sequence/story?id=18185766#.UUtqwxyG0Yk
http://www.distraction.gov/download/research-pdf/Adults-Cellphone-Distractions.pdf

Abstract

Texting and talking on the phone while driving has been a nationwide concern in the USA. States are constantly coming up with new laws to make driving safer, one of their ways have been to ban usage of the cell phone while driving a motor vehicle. My hypothesis stated that when the amount of distraction increase (such as talking on the phone or texting when you actually have to look away from the road) the worse the driving will be.
The best way to test my data would be to actually have people out on the road, however that would have been highly dangerous so instead I had my test subjects play Wii Mario Carts because then they have a steering wheel which was realistic as I could get. I recorded every crash or bump and as many times has they died. The overall result showed that when talking on the phone driving worsened but texting on the phone and driving had a drastic effect on the amount of crashes and deaths in most subjects. Therefore my hypothesis is supported by my finding with the data.